ICYMI: Vicente Gonzalez in hot water over latest racist comments
Vicente Gonzalez saying “Somebody’s gotta pick the fruit, and only little hands can do that” is his latest remark to come to light in a troubling pattern of racist, sexist, and xenophobic comments.
To recap Gonzalez’s problematic statements:
- Gonzalez previously paid a blogger to call Congresswoman Mayra Flores a “cotton-picking liar,” “Miss Frijoles,” and write sexually derogatory posts about the her.
- Gonzalez previously said he wasn’t born in Mexico and should therefore be elected instead of Flores.
- Gonzalez called Flores an “unqualified” “pawn.”
- Gonzalez said Flores was just “confused” because she disagrees with him about policy.
In Case You Missed It…
Flores Hits Gonzalez in Texas Race: 2019 Comments Show ‘Racist Colors’
Adrian Carrasquillo
Newsweek
September 7, 2022
https://www.newsweek.com/flores-hits-gonzalez-texas-race-2019-comments-show-racist-colors-1740776
Republican charges of racism are the latest twist in a bitter congressional contest in Texas between Democratic Representative Vicente Gonzalez and Republican Representative Mayra Flores for the redrawn 34th Congressional District in Texas.
The charges came after a 2019 video resurfaced in which Gonzalez used questionable language to describe migrant farmworkers.
In a conversation from October 30, 2019, entitled “Meeting With the Mayor: Congressman Vicente Gonzalez,” then-mayor of McAllen, Texas Jim Darling interviews Gonzalez on a range of issues, with the last segment on immigration.
Darling says that “nobody is solving the immigration issues,” and Gonzalez suggests a program for “labor migration, in which they could come in as guest workers for a year or two, and after maybe five years they could ask for a green card.”
He mentions labor shortages in agriculture and construction, and “conservative Republican groups” coming to his office “pushing for some kind of immigration relief.”
Darling argues for a “need-based” immigration, as opposed to “merit-based,” and jokes that it’s not about “rocket scientists” coming into the country.
“Right,” Gonzalez replies, “Somebody’s gotta pick the fruit, and only little hands can do that,” while imitating a fruit-picking motion with his right hand.
When asked about Gonzalez’s comments in the video by Newsweek, Flores said that he was showing his “true, racist colors.”
“I’m just blown away,” she said. “I just honestly can’t believe that i just heard that.”
She added that the U.S. welcomes all immigrants, including scientists, doctors and teachers, and that immigrants don’t just pick fruit.
She said that the country needs “serious” immigration reform, “and he’s had three terms to come up with a bill, and he hasn’t done so, and he never will, so he can continue using the issue every year.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is working to defeat Gonzalez, said his comments were “another xenophobic and racist attack on the people he hopes to represent.”
Asked to clarify his comments, Gonzalez told Newsweek the issue is “nonsense,” but went on to explain himself.
“America is diverse in its workforce,” he said. “That means human hands have to do the job that the industrial equipment can’t.”
He added that “nobody in Congress is for child labor,” if that’s what “their small minds are trying to insinuate.”
The barbs are flying from both sides in a race that has become unusually personal, as Republican gains in south Texas in 2020, coupled with Flores special election win, have set the stage for a contested election, despite the seat leaning Democratic.
After her June win, Gonzalez took a quick shot at his opponent in an interview with Newsweek, calling Flores an “unqualified opponent” who was “a pawn chosen by the Republican Party for a race they poured millions of dollars into for a seat that’s going to last six months.”
Gonzalez then went further, casting himself as the traditional Texan in the race, and Flores as an immigrant outsider.
“I wasn’t born in Mexico,” he said. “I was born in South Texas, the son of a Korean war veteran.”
“I didn’t come here through chain migration,” he added. “I didn’t come through asylum or amnesty or whatever.”
Flores, who said during her first race that her family emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico “the legal way” when she was 6 years old, later said in an interview Gonzalez’ attacks were “because I was born in Mexico.”
The personal edge continued into the following month, when it was revealed that Gonzalez had used campaign funds to pay Texas political blogger Jerry McHale, who later went on to call Flores “Miss Frijoles” and “Miss Enchiladas.”
Flores, who said she worked in the cotton fields in the small town of Memphis, Texas, since she was 13, was called a “cotton-pickin’ liar” by McHale over those claims.
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Read the full story in Newsweek, here.